Lame

No self-respecting politician wants to be one. The phrase itself is utterly demeaning. But with a year left in office, there are signs that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has begun his transformation into a lame duck. This status, defined by the weakness of a politician whose term will soon expire, may be difficult to swallow for a former Mr. Universe known to legions of moviegoers for vanquishing opponents as Hercules, Conan and the Terminator. Even as a pregnant man in "Junior," Schwarzenegger reflected a particular kind of strength.

Re "The president and the pope," Opinion, March 26 Doyle McManus wrote a balanced article about President Obama and Pope Francis "trading notes on practical politics" at a Vatican visit. As McManus points out, Francis has the advantage by not having "to worry about midterm elections or a balky Congress. " That being said, perhaps it's time for America to revisit the relevancy of the constitutional amendment that limits the number of times a person can be elected president. This could curtail the balkiness of Congress, by getting things done with prodding from a non-lame-duck president.

October 16, 2009 | Paul B. Stares, Paul B. Stares is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the coauthor of "Preparing for Sudden Change in North Korea."

Just a few months ago, the supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, appeared to be a lame duck in both senses of the term. In public appearances, he looked deathly ill after suffering a severe stroke in 2008, and preparations were reportedly underway for one of his sons to succeed him. Fast-forward to today, and Kim is lame no more. Not only has he regained his vigor, judging by his performance during recent visits by Bill Clinton and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, but talk of his succession has also become muted.

Greg Sargent on Tuesday unveiled the "documentation" offered by the Koch brothers-funded tea party group Americans for Prosperity to back up its recent anti-Obamacare campaign commercial airing in Michigan. The ad featured a local leukemia patient named Julie Boonstra, complaining about her experience under Obamacare. The ad's target, Gary Peters, a Democratic candidate for Senate, demanded that the group back up its claims. As you might expect, the documentation does nothing to contradict the expert debunking of the original ad performed by Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post . We reported on the back-and-forth here, and placed it in the context of the short, sad history of conservative efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act with "horror stories" that don't stand up to scrutiny . In the ad, Boonstra relates her old insurance was canceled "because of Obamacare," and under her new, ACA-compliant plan, "the out-of-pocket costs are so high, it's unaffordable.

Love the pencil guy. Hate the duck. At least the pencil guy seems to have some connection to the page he's on (Letters, Nov. 13). What's with the cartoon duck? Last week's explanation was, like the duck, lame. KATHY ROGERS Pacific Palisades Lame? OK, how about this: The duck was the mascot for our Summer Splash issue in May, and everyone liked him so much, we asked him to stay.

Thank you for Conine's fine column. We need more of his kind of thinking. These disloyal Americans calling the President a "lame duck" and a "useful idiot for the Soviets" make me boil! Thank goodness for (Vice President) George Bush. MRS. ANDRIAN J. JENSEN Santa Maria

I was shocked at the fraudulence of the words and images in "Burnout." To commission some very talented but prosperous commercial illustrators and photographers to do a few renditions of Black Rage is lame enough, but then to compare them to some of the greatest artists of the 20th Century, and on such flimsy grounds, amounts to cultural perjury. TIM SASSOON Venice

THE prophetic Howard Stern once dubbed KLSX-FM (97.1) "Radio Hindenburg," and Jack Silver's latest brainstorm has finally sent the station crashing down in flames [" 'Breakfast With the Beatles' Dropping Off KLSX's Menu," by Randy Lewis, Aug. 7]. The program director is dropping "Breakfast With the Beatles" after 23 years, but he consoles listeners with these oh-so-sincere words: "I support it 100%." Thanks, Jack, that means a lot! I plan to support KLSX 100% by never tuning in again -- unless I feel a sudden urge to hear the round-the-clock boring infomercials and lame Howard Stern wannabes now fully populating your 100% unlistenable station.

Of all the time-honored failings for which we criticize sitting presidents - by "we" I mean pundits, academics and other members of the chattering phylum - two charges stand out: imperialism and shrinkage. Usually it's one or the other. When the president is unpopular or when he's lost control of his agenda or when he just seems inadequate to the demands of the job, the headline "The Incredible Shrinking Presidency" proliferates like kudzu. When the Republicans lost control of Congress in 2006, the Economist proclaimed "The Incredible Shrinking Presidency" of George W. Bush on its cover.

Maybe too much sex has addled Suzanne Somers' brain. In a much-mocked essay published by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, the 67-year-old self-help author and star of the 1970s TV show “Three's Company” held forth on what she believes are the evils of Obamacare and the terrible effects it will have on retirees. She didn't really use facts, as such, or even logic, as such. Instead, using personal anecdotes about relatives and friends in Canada, a misremembered newsmagazine headline and apparently fabricated quotes by Stalin and Churchill, she maintained that Obamacare is a “socialist Ponzi scheme.” Here's a bit of what she wrote: “Affordable care will allow for preexisting conditions.

The frantic action-comedy "Chinese Zodiac" may please non-discriminating fans of its co-writer/director/star (and more) Jackie Chan, but will likely leave most other viewers dazed, confused and eagerly watching the clock. The fact that this awkwardly dubbed, stateside version reportedly runs about 15 minutes shorter than the cut released in China may in part account for the movie's convoluted plotting. On the upside, there's now less of this cartoonish mishmash to wade through. Blasting, brawling and close-calling his way through the mayhem is Chan, cheesing it up as a bounty hunter known only as J.C. (which one, er, prays stands for "Jackie Chan")

If a driver were involved in a crash locally and alcohol or drugs could have been an issue, police will usually have the driver tested. It wouldn't matter if he or she were a tourist from another country, or a visitor here to do some corporate business. Why, then, is it different for pilots of airliners that crash? This puzzling dichotomy was revealed Tuesday in a news conference about the Asiana Airlines crash in San Francisco. According to Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, federal rules call for key crew members involved in an accident to receive drug and alcohol testing.

When Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson crashed weddings with such crazy success in 2005, they wanted to get laid. Older and not particularly wiser in "The Internship," the guys now want to get jobs. That's funny. Unfortunately, the comedy is linked to some new-age nonsense about old-school guys finally catching up with the Internet age. It's a one-liner forged into a two-hour joke. At stake is a much-coveted summer internship at Google that could lead to a full-time gig. This sets up a fish-out-water tale with the 40-something goofballs essentially thrown into a school ruled by young nerd geniuses.

ABC's new nighttime soap "Mistresses," which premieres Monday, is pretty much what we've come to expect from any Americanized version of a British television show that isn't "The Office": lame. The BBC version, which debuted here in 2009, was the fairly ridiculous tale of a quartet of female besties, each involved in some manner of semi-illicit romantic intrigue or other - a U.K. and middle-aged "Sex and the City," elevated by a willingness to conjure mood and the inevitable Very Fine British Acting.

Quoting from your paper (Part I, May 10), Regan said of publishing his book now: "They dismissed me--why should I wait?" Two reasons might be: (1) Revenge would not be as sweet, (2) It certainly would not sell as well. What kind of disgruntled patriot, (which he said he was) would defame his President in the midst of crucial arms negotiations . . . because he got canned? This former Marine has lost his true grit. Regan's cop-out, the famous "the public has a right to know," cannot conceal the lack of character which prompted these actions and perhaps explain the reason that he was "dismissed."

Regarding Charles McNulty's article on L.A. actors taking the stage in N.Y. ["Critic's Notebook," May 3]. Why can't the L.A. Times take a wider look at theater in L.A. or Southern California? All you guys ever quote are Gil Cates, an established longtime hack, and Michael Ritchie, who has managed to make his politically correct predecessor look like a visionary. And what successful screen-TV actor would want to risk doing live theater with those lame safety nets? Quality talent shops their next project by how much they respect and can be inspired by the director and that director's track record.

BEIJING -- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa might be leaving office at the end of next month, but he nonetheless got a personal audience Tuesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meeting came in advance of Xi's scheduled trip to California June 7-8 to meet President Obama. Xi, who officially stepped into the presidency in March after his elevation last year to head the Chinese Communist Party, has been holding a flurry of diplomatic meetings in recent weeks, but it is somewhat outside protocol for the president to receive a mayor.

With its announcement Thursday, Hollywood Park did little to refute the theory that horse racing is a sport in need of hospice. They raced at the Inglewood track Friday, but it wasn't business as usual. Nor will it be the rest of this meeting and the track's final one, which ends Dec. 22. For people in the business, and fans of the sport, the next six months of racing at the place universally known as Hollypark will be an emotional saddle sore. The bulldozers are at the gate.